“God, you’re shaking,” she says as she pulls me closer.
I sniffle and hold onto her.
“Wyatt told me someone’s harassing you, my mom told me about the flyers,” she says with a watery voice.
I pull back and look at her, her eyes brimming with tears. She’s looking at me like I’ve never seen before.
“I would never do this to you…yeah, I was pissed, but never-”
“I know, I know,” I tell her.
She sighs and pulls me in for another hug.
“I’m sorry Irys, I never meant to keep me and Wyatt from you.” Again I raise my head and look at her. “It wasn’t supposed to be anything, it just got out of hand and I didn’t want to hurt you.”
She nods and inhales deeply. “I was hurt because I felt like maybe you couldn’t talk to me, like you were worried I’d be pissed…and I know now, the way I reacted the morning you two were on the couch, I didn’t make it easy for you to talk to me.”
“Just, I feel like, I’m changing so much, finding myself. For months I’ve been scared shitless about talking to you about so many things.”
“Why?” she asks with her brows pinched.
I move away from her and sit on the edge of the bed, adjusting my towel.
“When I knew I wasn’t going to go to college was the first thing. I didn’t want you to think less of me or something. I think I was struggling, still coming to terms with it myself. Then I blurted it out at dinner and I saw how hurt you seemed that I didn’t tell you about it. I never wanted you to look at me like that again. I lost my virginity to Blake on my birthday, and it didn’t do anything for me. The sex I mean.”
She comes and sits beside me, angling her body to face me.
“I thought something was wrong with me, and I didn’t know how to explain it to you because I didn’t understand it either. Then Wyatt…before graduation, he kissed me. Even though it was my first contact like that with a guy, I knew it was more. Then he left for Montana, and I thought that was it between us. When he came back for my birthday, we started having a fuck buddy relationship. We’re both into some…different things. I didn’t think you’d understand, and again I thought he’d sleep with me a few times and then ditch me again. My own selfishness made me lie to you about it then, in the beginning. But as we kept seeing each other, and my feelings grew deeper, so did his. But by then I felt like too much time had passed and I knew you’d be hurt if I told you. Then the morning at your house happened…I let it get out of hand, and I’m so sorry Irys. I was so afraid that you’d hear the things I wanted to talk about, and you’d not want to be friends with me anymore. I love you so much, and all I wanted to do was protect you.” I sniffle as a new wave of tears pool in my eyes.
Finally looking over at her to see tears coming down her cheeks. In true best friend fashion, she leans in and we hug once more.
“I love you, Daisy, nothing could ever stop me from that. I’m sorry I’ve been such a shitty friend to have ignored that all these things were happening to you…you forgive me?” she asks.
The relief of her forgiving me, and her taking the blame, makes me snort chuckle.
“Just this once.” I look up at her.
We both start to giggle cry and this one part of my life being resolved, allows some of the stress from today to dwindle. We sit and talk, which seems so foreign as of late with her. I tell her about today and we both think it has to be Blake, who else could it be. I get dressed and glance at the clock, it’s late and I know she has to work in the morning.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay the night?” she asks as she stands and walks toward the door.
“Wyatt’s gonna stay,” I tell her and watch her face for some sort of displeased reaction. But she genuinely smiles and it feels freeing to say those words to her.
“It might take me a while to get used to you saying things like that.”
“I love you,” I tell her.
“I love you, get some sleep.”
21
WYATT
I sit on my bike at the end of his street, I see his car there but I’m just waiting. His dad’s squad SUV is sitting in the driveway, so I have to wait. Of course Chief Milton doesn’t want to believe his little bitch son has anything to do with this shit, but I know otherwise. It pulverizes me knowing how broken Daisy is from this, but it’s temporary. I’ll make it better; I’ll make it all go away. My phone chirps with in the pocket of my leather jacket, and I retrieve it.
“Yeah?”
“Son,” my dad starts, “Chilly got the websites shut down.”
I close my eyes and thank fuck that at least that part is taken care of. Even though the MC is legit, Chilly still runs surveillance and does anything the club needs. I knew if someone could get in there, if my mom couldn’t, it would be Chilly.
“Fucking hell,” I sigh.
“You with her?” he asks.
“No,” I pause, “about to talk with Blake.”
“Wyatt,” my dad says calmly.
“I can’t let this fucker get away with this-”
“That’s not up for you to decide, the sites shut down, Chilly’s looking into who set up the account. Wait until we know who it is before you go stirring the pot.”
“If this was Mom-” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“I know, trust me I know,” he sighs. “But you’re better than that, better than me at that age, and I don’t want something to fuck up your future like fucking with the Police Chief’s kid.”
I know what he’s saying is the logical reasoning I need, but fuck. I clench my free hand into a fist on my thigh.
“I just want to take away anything that hurts her…she was so devastated, Dad, knowing that someone is fucking with her, makes me want to kill someone.”
“Wyatt, you have no idea how much I know what that feels like. But you have to look at the big picture, if it is him and we find that out, we’ll deal with it…just think about Daisy, she’s better off with you with her than you in jail right now.”
I run my hand through my hair and watch as Milton walks out of the house and toward his vehicle.
“Please Wyatt,” Dad says.
“Okay, I’m leaving and heading to Grandma’s.”
I end the call and tuck my phone back in my pocket, knowing the best thing for me is to go to Daisy. I fire up my bike and head over to Missy’s. The porch light is on, so is the light in the center window upstairs, which is where I know Daisy is. I look around the street as I pull in, making sure there’s no cars here that shouldn’t be before heading around the back of the house. I unlock the backdoor, which is weird because I’ve never had to before, and see my grandma trying to set the alarm. Her glasses pushed down the tip of her nose as she looks between a slip of paper and the key code box.
“Thank God, I haven’t set this fucking thing in my life,” she says moving away from the console on the wall and allowing me to do it.
I set it and then stand up, Missy hugs me and gives me a pat on the back.
“Thanks for letting us stay,” I tell her.
“Of course, I’ll be here during the day and Sven left plenty of guns around the place,” she winks.
She makes me smile and we both head upstairs, as she turns lights off along the way. I get to the bedroom door and open it quietly, not sure if maybe Daisy fell asleep with the lights on. But she’s sitting up in the middle of the bed, her back against the headboard, and when she looks at me she lets out a sigh of relief.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hey,” I tell her, slipping my jacket and boots off.
“Irys came by,” she says after a long minute as I strip off my clothes, leaving me in my boxer briefs and I look at her with raised brows. “We made up,” she sighs with a smile, but her eyes fill with tears.
I crawl onto the bed beside her and she immediately curls her body into me, and I bring her onto my lap, tucking her head under my chin.
“Good,” I tell her and kiss
the top of her head.
Her body’s tense, trembling slightly, and I hate that she’s still feeling so upset.
“The website got taken down,” I tell her, hoping this will help.
She lifts her head and looks at me, I cup her face and run my thumbs over her cheeks. She nods slightly, but her body still doesn’t relax.
“When I left the house earlier, looking back, there was a man at my parents’ door…he looked at me like he knew me.” Her chin begins to quiver as she speaks. “I didn’t know him, what if…what if he was there looking for me, from the website?”
I pull her against me again, my heart racing at the thought, and what could’ve happened.
“We’ll call Milton in the morning and tell him, okay? Everything will be okay Daisy, no one will let anyone hurt you…we’ll find out who’s doing this and stop it.”
As I say them, I know my words mean nothing to her. All I can do is show her that I’m here, and I won’t let anything hurt her. We fall asleep like this, I wake up a few times to her stirring or adjusting and I tighten my arms around her. I wake up in the morning when my phone alarm wakes me for work, and I look over at her. Even in sleep, there’s a crease between her brows with worry, and I know I can’t leave her today. Taking my phone off the nightstand and text my dad that I won’t be in today, and I don’t care if it’s a problem, this shit is bigger than work. He tells me it’s not a problem and asks how Daisy’s doing. I then text Uncle Nathan and tell him I’m staying with her today, he too asks how she is and told me to keep him updated throughout the day. I doze back off to sleep, waking when Daisy rolls onto her back and stretches. I blink over at her as she cracks open her eyes and looks around in confusion, then at me. She begins to smile, but then I see something shift in her eyes and it falls from her lips, like realization dawns and she remembers why we’re here. We don’t speak as I link her hand with mine and bring them to my mouth to kiss, then she gasps.
“Aren’t you late for work?”
“Not going today,” I tell her.
She sits up and runs her hands through her hair, her knees drawing up to her chest.
“I’m sorry,” she says sheepishly.
I sit up beside her. “For what?”
She looks out the window in front of the bed. “For all this, for having to miss work to stay with me, for getting the police involved, dating the town whore-”
“Stop that,” I tell her and she turns her head toward me. “Stop that right now, this pity-party bullshit, you didn’t do anything wrong. Some jealous fucking loser is trying to make you feel bad, but why give them the power? Those photos, that video, those were for us. You’re a sexy empowered woman who is self-confident and self-sufficient…there are a lot of people who envy that, and want that. Don’t you fucking blame yourself for one second for being any of those things, I love those things about you…so you’re not going to sit here and be sad for something that’s out of your hands. I won’t let you…you didn’t let me when Sven died, and I won’t let you.”
Daisy straightens her spine, her shoulders pushing back with confidence.
“I love you,” she says.
I kiss her tenderly and tuck hair behind her ear, and she leans in, cupping my face before placing a delicate kiss on my lips. I want nothing more than to make love with her, to give her comfort the only way I know how, but I’m not sure if that’s what she wants. I can’t blame her if she doesn’t, I’m sure sex is the furthest thing from her mind. But then, one hand slides down my cheek and chest to my lap, cupping between my legs. Instantly my cock jumps against her palm and I pull my face away, looking deep in her eyes.
“Make me feel like I’m not a whore,” she whispers, biting her lower lip.
I exhale as her fingers wrap around me over my boxers, and move to take her lips once more. She strokes me softly as I grow hard, and my hand gropes her breast, feeling the hard metal through her nipple beneath her shirt. She groans softly and removes her hand from me, slipping under the elastic at my waist to feel my skin. we don’t speak as we fondle and stroke, my hand makes its way into her pants and my fingers play with the wetness between her thighs. We lay back on the bed and she lifts back up to take off her t-shirt, pulling her pants down as I take my underwear off. She returns back to me naked and my hands run along her shoulders and back as she straddles me, leaning down to kiss me. I can’t help but think about how many times I thought about being with her like this, before we were together. How I imagined how she would sound and what she would feel like. Nothing ever prepared me for how all of her really is, how she has the power to show me in every way possible, that she loves me. I close my eyes in pleasure, and to not show her that my eyes are glassy with the feelings she conjures. She rises up on her knees as we kiss and finds me erect and ready, sliding down onto me. She buries her face into my neck, her breath caressing the skin there as I wrap my arms around her torso and move my hips up to meet her. We move together, our bodies and souls connecting as we lose ourselves in one another. Daisy’s body tightens and I know she’s on the verge of coming, and my hands cup her face, bringing our lips together. We both come and I keep kissing her, not wanting to break this.
She lays on top of me, letting me caress her skin and pet her hair, until her stomach growls.
“Come on,” I tell her, taking her hand as we get out of bed.
After getting dressed, I take her in my arms again and give her a hug before heading downstairs.
“Morning,” Missy says from the front room, sitting in a chair by the window and reading the paper. “Want me to make you guys something to eat?”
“Nah,” I tell her and we walk into the kitchen.
Daisy goes to the fridge and opening it, while I reach in over her head to grab the carton of eggs. She takes out a container of juice, closing the fridge and moving toward the cabinets to retrieve two glasses. I flip on the burner that already has a saucepan sitting on top of it, Daisy pours us both a glass of orange juice as I crack two eggs in the pan, instantly causing them to sizzle and pop with the heat. Tossing the egg shells into the garbage, I wash my hands and then take the glass from her other hand, downing it as she sips from hers. I kiss her forehead and move back over to the eggs, using a spatula to prod them. She presses into my back, resting the side of her face between my shoulder blades. She purrs like a kitten in the sun, as she snuggles up to my warmth. We eat breakfast, with little conversation but she seems a little less stressed today.
“I need to go back and get some stuff I forgot from the loft,” she says, coming out of the bathroom.
“Okay, let’s go on the way to pick the girls up from camp,” I tell her.
We let Missy know we’re leaving, and ask to take her SUV so we can fit everyone. The drive over to the Westmore’s is short, and again I scan the cars in the neighborhood, and I can tell Daisy’s doing the same. I pull up to the garage and we both get out, looking around as she walks ahead of me to the door, unlocking it and I hear the creak of the wood door as I look over the back yard, then she gasps. I turn quickly and see over her shoulder at the disaster that is her loft.
“Daisy, no,” I say and reach for her as she begins walking in, but she pulls from my fingertips.
I step in behind her. “Don’t touch anything,” I state as my eyes take everything in.
When I say vandalized, I mean the worse you can imagine. All the furniture is flipped over, sliced open, the stuffing pulled out and everywhere. Picture frames are smashed, the photos either torn up or spray painted on. The spray paint, well that’s everywhere too, all over the walls, her stereo, the kitchen counters and cabinets. Every drawer, cupboard, closet, shelf, is cleared out and the contents riddle the floor. Daisy walks toward the steps with a hand over her mouth, then she begins up the steps as I reach for my phone to dial the police department. I turn to see that the door of the entrance from the garage looks like it’s been pried open with a crowbar, this is how the person got in.
“Plantain Police Department
,” a woman answers.
“I need a police officer at 9987 Foreman Drive, there’s been a burglary.”
Which I don’t know why I use that term because I’m fairly sure this wasn’t to steal anything, but another thing to fuck with Daisy.
“Is the intruder still there?” she asks.
“No-”
Then I hear a gasp and look up at Daisy’s horrified face.
“Just get here,” I say before ending the call and going up to the bedroom.
Everything from the backpack is lying on her bed, panties and bras cut up and tossed all over, along with 8x10 black and white photos of me and Daisy, from her phone and us out together. But the thing that’s most shocking is everything is covered in a red substance.
“Is that blood?” she asks, looking at me with wide eyes.
It sure smells like it, but shit I don’t know.
“Come on,” I say, taking her hand and leading her downstairs.
We stand inside the backdoor of her parents’ house as the police look around the loft and Milton asks us what happened. Daisy calls her parents so someone could pick up the girls from camp, and all I can do is stand by her side as she explains the scene.
“I’m going to send whatever’s in the bedroom area, to the crime lab. We took photos and I’ll put them with the report. We’ve dusted for fingerprints and have all the evidence we need.”
Use Somebody: Plantain Series Book Four Page 23